Trump Touts Progress In Returning Hostages Held In Hamas Captivity To Their Families

3 days ago

During a cabinet meeting on Thursday, President Donald Trump spoke about the ongoing talks to bring hostages held in Hamas captivity home to their families.

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Transcript

00:00The Ukrainians say they have evidence that Chinese soldiers have been found fighting for the Russians in Ukraine.

00:06Can the U.S. verify this? And if so, what does the U.S. plan on doing to China if to counter-fight?

00:12We'll look into it, but I think beyond that we're really looking to get that war stopped.

00:17They're losing 2,500, and even more than that, young people a week.

00:23They're Russian and they're Ukrainian. They're not American, but they're people.

00:27And we're seeing if we can get it stopped. And I think we're making progress.

00:32I appreciate the ballerina who was released.

00:36It was at the request of a very good friend of all of ours, actually.

00:42Dana White called me and he said it's the friend or the relationship of one of the fighters for UFC or one of the fighters.

00:51And Dana is an incredible guy and we spoke to President Putin about it and they made a deal.

00:57They released the young ballerina and she is now out and that was good.

01:03So we appreciate that. We hope that we're going to be able to make a deal relatively soon with Russia and Ukraine to stop the fighting.

01:10It's so senseless. It's such a horrible thing.

01:12It would have never happened if I were president, but it did happen.

01:15And we were given that card and I think we're going to get it.

01:19I think we're going to get it stopped. We've got to get going.

01:22We've got to get it. We have to move it faster.

01:24Likewise with the hostages, we're making progress.

01:28We, you know, there's 59 hostages, but only 24 of them are living.

01:34And that's the way it's been presented to me by the mothers of some of the dead mothers and fathers of some of the dead hostages.

01:43And they want the bodies of their of their baby, as they say, their baby, their young boys.

01:51They want they want them back as much as if they were alive.

01:55It's amazing, because when I met the hostages two weeks ago here, I couldn't believe what they had to go through, by the way.

02:01But when I met them, they said, yeah, there's 59, but 24 are living.

02:07And they actually consider, I guess if you're a parent, you do consider it this way, that the remainder who are dead, the 24 that are alive, the remainder that are dead,

02:18they want them back just as much as they would want them back if they were alive.

02:23It's really pretty amazing and pretty sad.

02:26So we're getting close to getting them back.

02:32We have a lot came back.

02:33A lot of people are very grateful.

02:36Some came back in pretty bad shape.

02:38Some came back.

02:40They're OK.

02:41I think they're going to be scarred mentally for a long time, because if you sit down and talk to them, as I have, what they went through is incredible.